In Part 5 of an 8-part series on PPC brand bidding, columnist Lori Weiman shares her tips on how to deal with competitors who are bidding on your brand name.

Welcome to Part 5 of an eight-part series on PPC brand bidding, where I answer the biggest question facing PPC advertisers in 2016: How do I get meaningful growth numbers out of a crowded and competitive PPC market?

This article shows you exactly how to address your competition when managing brand bidding PPC campaigns.

Competition is inevitable

If you have a brand worth protecting, competitors are already bidding on your brand name. Some bid directly on your name, while others will bid on obvious derivatives, such as when Marketo bids on phrases like “Pardot drip marketing” (and vice versa). Many large brands have competitors bidding to every available ad position for every imaginable brand and brand-plus keyword.

A recent case study from a Search Monitor client, Chacka Marketing, illustrates the benefits of reducing competition in brand bidding. Chacka used our company’s ad monitoring platform to help Avery, the label company, catch unauthorized advertisers who were using the well-known Avery brand name in their PPC copy. Chacka routinely filed trademark violation notices with Google, Bing and Yahoo until the culpable ads were removed.

The results of removing these competitors speak for themselves:

Brand CPCs decreased by 64 percent.

Clicks increased 34 percent.

Total campaign costs dropped by 51 percent.

The question is, what can you do to deal with competitors brazenly showing up on your hard-earned name?

About The Author

Lori Weiman is CEO and co-founder of The Search Monitor. The Search Monitor provides marketing intelligence to SEM, SEO, and Affiliate Marketers. Prior to TSM, Lori developed real-time bidding and tracking products for paid search and affiliate marketing. Lori is a frequent speaker at conferences such as SES, SMX, Search Insider Summit, and Affiliate Summit.